NHL Playoffs 2014

Last night’s game provided the validation Lundqvist needed from the fickle fans here that accuse him of not coming up big in the playoffs. He played on his head, including the sequence with five and a half minutes left where he had to make body saves after losing his stick.

One of the Monteal newspapers this morning said that the Canadiens had “achieved the improbable” by defeating the Bruins in Boston in Game 7.  I don’t know if “improbable” was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek understatement, but anyway the locals were very happy last night.

The paper said that the next team Montreal will be facing are the Rangers, and that there are only two other teams left in the playoffs.  Which two teams are those?  (I haven’t really been following the series.)

@LHoffman:

Actually there are 3 other teams left besides the Rangers. Chicago has already won their series and will play the winner of Anaheim - Los Angeles.

Ah, I see.  I though all the other series had already been locked up.  Thanks.

Habs beat the Big Bad Bruins in their own barn during a game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOO

@Young:

WWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOO

Yes, that’s approximately the sound I heard outside my window several times during the evening after the game ended.  There’s an unofficial traffic law in Montreal which states that when two motor vehicles flying Canadiens flags or other insignia pass each other on the road after a Habs victory, the vehicles are required to honk their horns at each other.

Question for you guys from Ontario.

IF……The Montreal Canadians make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, do you Ontarions root for them being proud Canadian citizens or do you loathe them no matter what and want to see them lose?

You guys didn’t want Vancouver to win in 2011 right?

Just getting ready for the conference finals :-D

Yesterday afternoon while I was walking downtown I passed by a sports bar and I saw on one of their TVs that the Canadiens were playing.  I thought, “That’s funny – why is a downtown sports bar two-thirds empty during a Habs playoff game?”  Then I saw the scoreboard: 5 to 1 for the opposition early in the third period.  I stayed for two or three minutes, during which time the Rangers scored two more goals.  The Canadiens eventually lost by a score of 7 to 2 – on home ice, to add insult to injury.  I hope they learned something useful from this debacle.  As Alfred Hitchcock once said to his set technicians when a device for a movie shoot malfunctioned, “Really, gentlemen, this will not do.  I think this falls into the ‘raised eyebrow’ category.”

@hkytown1:

Question for you guys from Ontario.

IF……The Montreal Canadians make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, do you Ontarions root for them being proud Canadian citizens or do you loathe them no matter what and want to see them lose?

You guys didn’t want Vancouver to win in 2011 right?

Just getting ready for the conference finals :-D

The issue is kinda split up here… as for myself, I don’t associate NHL teams with nationality. I find it ridiculous when Boston fans chant USA, USA, USA when playing the Habs, I mean don’t they know that half the Bruins team and management are Canadians. I also found it silly to hear Montreal fans booing the American anthem a few years back, equally insulting to the American players on the team. I remember back when the Toronto Blue Jays won the world series in 93 and all the talk up hear was how the American Marine Corp held the Canadian flag upside down  :roll:. IMO, flag waving is for the olympics, not for professional sports, and I personally would never cheer for the Leafs no matter who they were playing against.

@CWO:

Yesterday afternoon while I was walking downtown I passed by a sports bar and I saw on one of their TVs that the Canadiens were playing. I thought, “That’s funny – why is a downtown sports bar two-thirds empty during a Habs playoff game?” Then I saw the scoreboard: 5 to 1 for the opposition early in the third period. I stayed for two or three minutes, during which time the Rangers scored two more goals. The Canadiens eventually lost by a score of 7 to 2 – on home ice, to add insult to injury. I hope they learned something useful from this debacle. As Alfred Hitchcock once said to his set technicians when a device for a movie shoot malfunctioned, “Really, gentlemen, this will not do. I think this falls into the ‘raised eyebrow’ category.”

Carey Price got badly injured when the game was still close, it’s been down hill for the team ever since and the fact that he’s out for the entire series, doesn’t help matters going into NY.

I’m glad Montreal is only 4 wins away and is certainly looking like they got the momentum. As soon as they win it all this thread will get real quiet and we can go back to assigning one of the American teams as really being a Canadian team in disguise.

I consider myself a big Rangers fan and I know all too well how much the team has let fans down over the decades. I still can’t believe they won the first two games in such convincing fashion. And Nash scored two goals to boot!

Believe me you’ll hear from me when the Rangers postseason is over. Just hope it lasts three more weeks.

My Habs have one foot in the grave, unfortunately the team is playing with zero confidence in their young back up goalie Dustin Takarski (even though he has done everything needed to win, and has proven to be Montreal’s best player during the last 2 games). Incredible the difference an overtime goal in a game 4 makes, now they gotta win 3 in a row against Lundquist.

The local papers this morning were all complaining that Montreal’s biggest problem in this series has been their abysmal power play record.  One paper used the phrase “jeu d’impuissance”, which roughly translates as “impotence play”.

The penalty kill is the strongest attribute the Rangers have, the second being team speed on the counterattack. I think the slower ice at MSG wreaked havoc with both teams, as there were many unpredictable bounces and rebounds. And Tokarski played the game of his life in Game 3, it looks like the Rangers are slowly figuring him out.

A wild Habs win for sure… but I’m not gonna give myself a heart attack unless they force a game 7.